King James Bible
And he said, When ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them upon the stools; if it be a son, then ye shall kill him: but if it be a daughter, then she shall live.

American Standard Version
and he said, When ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them upon the birth-stool; if it be a son, then ye shall kill him; but if it be a daughter, then she shall live.

Young's Literal Translation
and saith, 'When ye cause the Hebrew women to bear, and have looked on the children; if it is a son -- then ye have put him to death; and if it is a daughter -- then she hath lived.'

Exodus 1:16 Additional Translations
Clarke's Commentary on the Bible

Upon the stools - על האבנים al haobnayim. This is a difficult word, and occurs nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible but in Jeremiah 18:3, where we translate it the potter's wheels. As אכי signifies a stone, the obnayim has been supposed to signify a stone trough, in which they received and washed the infant as soon as born. Jarchi, in his book of Hebrew roots, gives a very different interpretation of it; he derives it from בן ben, a son, or בנים banim, children; his words must not be literally translated, but this is the sense: "When ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and ye see that the birth is broken forth, if it be a son, then ye shall kill him." Jonathan ben Uzziel gives us a curious reason for the command given by Pharaoh to the Egyptian women: "Pharaoh slept, and saw in his sleep a balance, and behold the whole land of Egypt stood in one scale, and a lamb in the other; and the scale in which the lamb was outweighed that in which was the land of Egypt. Immediately he sent and called all the chief magicians, and told them his dream. And Janes and Jimbres, (see 2 Timothy 3:8). who were chief of the magicians, opened their mouths and said to Pharaoh, 'A child is shortly to be born in the congregation of the Israelites, whose hand shall destroy the whole land of Egypt.' Therefore Pharaoh spake to the midwives, etc."

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

and see them. or, rather, and ye see them by the stone-trough; a stone, seems to signify in which they washed the new-born infants. See this subject fully illustrated in Fragments to Calmet, nos.

312,

313. then ye shall.

Exodus 1:22 And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born you shall cast into the river...

Matthew 21:38 But when the farmers saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him...

Revelation 12:4 And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth...

Exodus 1:16 Parallel Commentaries
Bear Birth Boy Cause Childbirth Children Daughter Death Delivery Duty Girl Hebrew Help Helping Kill Live Midwife Observe Office Perform Serve Stool Stools WomenBear Birth Boy Cause Childbirth Children Daughter Death Delivery Duty Girl Hebrew Help Helping Kill Live Midwife Observe Office Perform Serve Stool Stools WomenTHE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica®.

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